Much has been written about academic department chairs who come into their administrative positions with no formal training and essentially must learn on the job. This oversight is particularly critical at this time, when the future shaping of higher education will depend on the leadership of academic departments to adapt and respond to change of many types. Help with chair preparation is a well-recognized need and is vigorously addressed by conferences, workshops (from nationally sponsored to institutionally generated), webinars, books, and periodicals, like this one, that can provide assistance, guidance and advice on a number of vexing challenges that chairs routinely face.

How Leaders Shape, Signal, and Build Cultures: A Discussion Guide for Academic Leaders and Their Teams
Among the many desired traits most prized in academic leadership, the ability to shape (or reshape) institutional culture is sometimes overlooked in favor of fiscal acumen, the ability to drive


